"Home to Silicon Valleys executives"

Located in the southwestern portion of Santa Clara County, Monte Sereno is a small, but wealthy community compounded with beautiful residential characteristics. It boasts a rather close-knit, secluded reputation, spanning 1.6 square miles with as few as 4,000 residents . Demographically speaking, the city’s racial makeup is predominately white (75% in fact) and houses much of the Silicon Valley community. For convenience sake, the area is about a 10 minute commute to the heart of San Jose with accessibility to Highways 17 and 85.

Aesthetically speaking, the city sits on the wooded Santa Cruz Mountains hillside and is complemented by rural characteristics. Its properties are enormous, laying ground for extravagant homes and nice, enclosed metal gates. While you’re driving around the community, you’ll come across acres of leafy sidewalks and quaint, orderly streets. If you venture up the city’s foothills and between the wooded terrain, you’ll come across some expensive, multi-million dollar estates. Perspective residents will be interested to know that you’ll be living amongst the wealthy elites (from the 1% to the .1%). In fact, median housing prices are estimated at around $920,000, while the average resident rakes in about $170,000/year.

Like most affluent communities, Monte Sereno invests a lot in its already stellar school system. It is served by the city’s neighbor, the Los Gatos Union School District, while a small portion of the city’s students attend schools in the adjacent Campbell Union School District. Both school systems report high test scores and receive a great student to teacher ratio.

"A Quiet Getaway for the Rich"

Monte Sereno is the neighborhood just to the south west of San Jose, right next to Los Gatos. With barely 3500 residents and a very similar feel to the hills of its neighbor’s southern reaches, Monte Sereno is little more than a neighborhood of Los Gatos.

This is basically mcmansion territory with large spacious homes lining the lanes--the median home price being around $2.5 million and home rarely falling beneath the million dollar barrier.

Outside of the large homes, people love this area because of the great location (perfect for Silicon Valley commutes), the outstanding schools that make up the school system to the south of the West Valley Freeway, and the bucolic country feel.

Monte Sereno, by itself, is not really a big draw for people looking for nightlife or restaurants, but it is surrounded by areas with fine restaurants including everything from sushi places to French restaurants. Residents have to go into Campbell for groceries and for any nightlife.

But that is not really the point of Monte Sereno. The point of living here is to have a quiet getaway from life’s hectic requirements. No crime, great schools, and lots of rich folks, basically.